


A Crystal Conundrum

by AdamH312



Series: Curristan Chronicles [14]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:35:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27699053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdamH312/pseuds/AdamH312
Summary: Curristan setting the TARDIS on a random trip arrives on the lush world of Kirata among a major scientific project. Lending his assistance, he realises that the crystals the Kiratian scientists are trying to use as a new source of power are something that could destroy Kirata instead of saving it.
Series: Curristan Chronicles [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/994611





	1. A Random Whim

Walking around the console Curristan continued to monitor the flight though the vortex. After leaving Earth he had yet to land anywhere. Deciding on a whim he immediately set the navigation to random. Holding on for a moment as the TARDIS shuddered for a second before normal flight resumed.

_'Hmm, I must do some maintenance sometime in the near future. Got to keep on top of it otherwise, the TARDIS will start to behave erratically.'_

It was nice to finally have a quiet time in his travels. He felt as he would now be able to travel without having to take part in a war or some sort of conflict. He would help people instead of shooting at them.

Suddenly the sound of materialisation alerted Curristan to the TARDIS finally landing. smiled as he felt the anticipation of what was outside the doors. Grabbing and donning a brown jacket he had fetched from the wardrobe, he pulled the door lever and exited onto the unknown planet.

The planet seemed to be quite green and flourishing, with an azure coloured sky similar to Earth's. However, there seemed to be something not right about the atmosphere. He could see that there was a shimmer that didn't seem to be natural.

Taking out his sonic screwdriver he set it before waving it in front of him, scanning the shimmer. Looking at the result he realised that there was a distortion of some kind which was rippling around the planet. He continued to walk forwards, keeping an eye out for anything unusual.

After several minutes he arrived at a clearing, with a crystal glowing in the middle of it.

“ _Hey! This is a restricted area! What are you doing here?”_

Looking around he saw a woman in a scientist uniform walking over to him.

“ _Oh sorry I have just arrived in my ship after the distortions drew it here.”_

“ _Sorry to hear that, I am Professor Forita Jakana, chief scientist of this project. We are trying to find a new source of energy to replace the pollution creating fuels that we are using now.”_

“ _Ahh fascinating. I hope that I can offer my services.”_

“ _What can you bring to this project stranger?”_

“ _Ahem, I am a Time Lord with some experience.”_

“ _Time Lord, not sure of that species, sounds important though. I hope you can help with these distortions that seem to be plaguing us.”_

“ _I am sure that I can help. They seem from what I can gather so far that they are causing atmospheric disturbance. I am not sure what else that these crystals will do. I will need to make more tests to see.”_

Professor Jakana's face lit up in happiness. _“I will be happy to let you once I inform the committee. I want to make sure that the project moves smoothly. I wil be back shortly, you can do what you can until I get back.”_

“ _Thank you Professor, I will wait for you to return.”_

As Professor Jakana left, Curristan walked over to the equipment and began to study it. It seemed simple and immediately began to get to work. He started to type on the main computer, so to study what progress the Professor had made so far. It seemed that the crystals were emitting some type of focused energy, which in theory could be used for large scale use.

However the energy seemed really unstable, though the Professor had made some logs saying that she could not figure out how much energy one crystal emitted. The equipment seemed not to be able to measure it.

After twenty minutes she returned with another man, who looked happy to see Curristan.

“ _Hello I am Professor Michal Garrea. I am so glad to have met you. I have no idea how you could exist...I remember meeting a Time Lord some twelve years ago, can't remember his name. But then he just disappeared saying there was an emergency back home.”_

Curristan nodded. _“Yes, we had some trouble which is now sorted, though Gallifrey itself is now missing.”_

“ _That is a pity. I hope that you can help our people. This is Kirata. We need a new energy source within the next fifty years or our atmosphere will begin to warm up.”_

“ _Ah just like Earth in the twentieth and twenty first century.”_

“ _Yes. Lets get to work, I hope we can sort out this conundrum and make progress.”_

“ _Let's get to work Professors. I look forward to helping your cause.”_

The first problem was however that no matter how hard Curristan tried, the crystal could not be utilised to draw energy from. Its energy field seemed impenetrable. This was a massive cause of frustration for the two professors.

“ _It's impossible!!”_ screamed a frustrated Professor Jakana. _“The energy field seems to be immune to any attempts to siphon it off for use. It seems to resist every time. It's going to be a major challenge.”_

“ _Hmm, its really vexing but fascinating challenge”_ Curristan agreed. _“I feel that its going to take a lot more research before we get any further progress. The crystal seems like its semi-sentient....maybe. I am sure that we can eventually get a break through.”_

Professor Jakana made a noise of assent. _“Well we have more work ahead of us I think. Let's have a break and then we can continue.”_

“ _I agree, maybe we can have some tea.”_


	2. A Growing Problem

Finishing his cup of tea and placing it down, Curristan considered his options. The project had so far been a frustrating business. However he was also worried. The energies of the crystal seemed to be out of reach for now, but they were also a potential problem.

As he returned to the main console, he began to rego over the data that they had collected so far. The energies seemed to be building which was a growing concern. Setting the computer to start another scan, Curristan walked over to a safe distance near where the crystal was sitting.

There was some sort of disturbance that he could feel around the crystal, like it was waiting to just explode. Something was just not right about this. Heading back he found that the scan had found several anomalies which seemed to be getting more prevalent.

_'Great this is not good. It looks like the energy Iin the crystal is starting to warp the space around it. I am not sure what is going to happen.I have to keep Professor Jakana informed.'_

Just at that point the aforementioned professor walked over.

“ _Ah Curristan whats going on? I hope we have made progress.”_

_Oh, well it looks like the energy distortion is getting worse. I wil try to see if I can dampen it down and maybe break through the field its generating.”_

“ _Oh dear. We need to get Professor Garrea informed so he can bring more equipment and helpers.”_

“ _That would be great Professor. I would ask that any other crystals you have are stored are brought here so we can experiment more and see what we can do.”_

“ _Of course, we have only one more found so far, we can have that brought here by tomorrow. Lets get going, time seems to be running out.”_

She then nodded before striding determinedly away.

Three hours later, Curristan had managed to make some progress in containing the energies into a fixed field around the crystal. However there was still no way yet that he had discovered to keep the crystal from continuing to concentrate its energy.

_'Come on....there has been some success but still I am struggling. This type of crystal is something I have never seen before....its power output is enormous but its still increasing every hour.'_

Connecting a new cable, Curristan again looked at the readings.

_'Damn thing still won't give. Nothing has changed. I feel right now that I am not going to get anywhere at this rate.'_

“ _Curristan?”_ came the voice of Professor Jakana. _“I have brought the other crystal, but its in a containment module right now. We need equipment to lift it out as the only person who handled it directly ended up being atomised....was the last time we rushed without following safety proceedure.”_

“ _I can imagine that poor person had their bio-energy absorbed by the crystal....it seems like it has a deep power inside it, but so far I don't know how much that is.”_

Jakana had as he was talking began to read through the readouts that continued to stream across the screen. _“It seems incredible that this crystal that is only a few feet square has so much power inside it.”_

“ _Yes and threatening power it is. I want to keep monitoring it as despite your assistants being around, they haven't been like us keeping a continuous eye on things. I have a bad feeling though...”_

Jakana raised her eyebrows. She felt glad that Curristan had decided to stay and help her. He had done more here than she had in the three weeks she had been here. His knowledge had been invaluable.

“ _Curristan do you think that we should inform the committee of the dangers? I don't want to cause a panic.”_

“ _Yes definitely. It would be a very negligent thing if we didnt inform the authorities what is happening. I will let you do that as they would definitely take you more seriously. Way more than an offworlder like me, no matter how helpful I have been.”_

On cue, there was a beeping as the next cycle of monitoring began. The screen flooded with lots of power fluctuation values, signalling that the crystal's power output had again increased.

“ _Wow, that happened faster than it has before. This is definitely not good,”_ Curristan declared with dread creeping into his voice.

“ _I will tell them immediately,”_ Jakana said with some fear before again leaving Curristan to his worrisome problem.

_'This is definitely becoming very dangerous. Unless I can find a way to stop this energy increase chain, the planet may become under threat from a sudden high energy burst. It would tear the planet apart.'_

As to prove his statement a sudden rumble erupted from the area around the crystal, which itself was now beginning to glow. The monitoring equipment close to the crystal gave out one more enormous reading before shorting out in a shower of sparks.

Looking at the new power readings Curristan rubbed his cheek anxiously.

_'Great those already incredible readings have quadrupled in almost no time at all and it's still growing. Time is running out.'_

A sudden bright flash caught his attention, followed by the sound of a deep thrumming sound. Reacting immediately Curristan began to type something into the console, bringing up a temporary dampening field to hold back a now rampantly fluctuating energy. However he would now have to create a new strategy, or the planet would be doomed.


	3. On the Brink

The new crisis had been detected by a research station nearby, plus also Professors Jakana and Garrea. Their horrorstruck gasps were the first thing Curristan heard of their return. He couldn't really comment as he continued to type into the console so to create a program that could slow down the energy.

Jakana spoke first. _“What can we do?”_

Not looking up Curristan made his request. _“I need you to please to get more power cells here as soon as possible, the current power we have here won't be able to fuel the containment field booster program I am inputting.”_

“ _Right we will get as many as we can set up.”_

The power seemed to be building much faster and was now beginning to create even more distortions. Curristan was now worried that the planet would soon be feeling the effects, including some particle physic ones that would eventually affect the atomic structure of the planet itself.

_'I really don't want to have the distinction of causing the planet to rip itself apart if these crystals become unstable....I just cannot let that happen.'_

Finally the power cells arrived and the Professors began to connect them to the ones already straining. As each one was connected the containment field began to grow and even start to restrict the energy emanating from the crystals.

“ _Its working!”_ came Curristan's jubilant shout. “ _I am not sure how long it will contain the energy for, we just need to keep it at bay until we can think of a more permanent solution.”_

Professor Jakana running over patted Curristan on the back. _“Well done at least it is a start. I am sure that if we continue to think it over we can figure out a solution. I am surprised we haven't started to see any major side effects yet.”_

“ _As long as the field stays operational we can keep the energy in that area while we find the right way to reseal it back in the crystal. If the field drops then the planet will start seeing distortions of immense power. It would eventually tear this planet to pieces. Nobody would stand a chance.”_

“ _Well, I am sure that you will able to fix this. I will also contribute as much as I can towards this, but right now I am worried that the field will collapse.”_

“ _That is a possibility, we are dealing with very destructive and unstable energy.”_

“ _Well we will come to that point when we come to it,”_ came Jakana's reply.

As they continued to work, the energy was now slowly breaking down the forcefield. It had been cowed initially by the containment but it was now accelerating wildly out of control.

Curristan sighed in frustration as he had yet to find out a workable solution. There were no more power cells left to use, so if the field failed there would be limited options left. A suitable solution would have to be found soon.

As he moved to check some power couplings, a sudden buzzing filled the air, followed by an ominous beeping from the console. Feeling a sudden burst of dread, Curristan's eyes roamed the screen. Jakana had also sprinted over to see what was happening.

“ _Ohh no Professor the field is collapsing...I feared this would happen. We don't have much time now before the energy becomes unrestrained and everything is in danger. You need to warn people that things are now serious.”_

“ _Absolutely Curristan I will right away. What will you do while I am gone?”_

“ _I am going to try and find a way to delay the inevitable. I am not sure I can stop the energy from breaking free now. But I hope that I can find a way of getting this thing off the planet somehow. It's a crazy idea but I can't see any way now.”_

“ _I see. I hope that we can do that. Good luck.”_

“ _Thank you...I am going to need it. This is going to be a close run thing.”_

He turned to see the energy field turning brighter and brighter.....


	4. A Resolution

_'Well now what will you do about this?”_ Curristan asked himself as he continued to type commands into the console in front of him. He had decided to abandon trying to keep the field from collapsing as that was now a losing fight. He would now begin trying to reconfigure the field into a teleportation one so he could then send the crystal to an empty part of space so it could explode without harming anyone.

So far he had been struggling to get the failing circuits to work properly as the crystal's energy began to start affecting the equipment. If this failed, Curristan would have to rig up a teleportation device from scratch in a limited time.

The crystal was now emitted at least fifty times the energy it had been originally outputting, which Curristan knew would be now causing major issues on the planet. Estimating in his head, he reckoned he had at most ten minutes before the energy began to distort the planet's integrity and start fracturing it.

Jakana suddenly appeared at Curristan's right shoulder. _“The committee is now aware of the problem and beginning to initiate contingency plans. Still no good?”_

Shaking his head Curristan grimly replied _“I am not sure I will be able to prevent the crystal from exploding, so right now I am trying to change the field so I can teleport it into an empty region of this system so it can explode without causing this planet to disintegrate.”_

“ _Ah, I believe in your efforts. You can do it.”_

“ _I appreciate your support. What happened to Professor Garrea?”_

“ _Oh he is still with the committee, he is now liasing with them.”_

“ _Thats good. We need people aware and up to date with whats happening here. Right it looks like I am starting to get the field's nature changed from just containment to also adding a function to start creating a teleportation field inside it. Once we have that we can do what we need to do and save this planet.”_

Internally though Curristan was trying his best not to panic. He was so close to getting the reconfiguring completed but he was worried that the containment would shatter before he could get the crystal away. However the fear was pushing him onwards and he would not give up trying to complete the task in front of him.

After two minutes or so of frantic typing Curristan finally looked up to see the area inside the field around the crystal begin to fluctuate similar to a teleportation beam. This brought a smile to his face. He knew now that he could program a command to input coordinates where the crystal could go.

However as he was inputting them, the field's exterior suddenly began to pulse. The crystal also was glowing a bright silver, signalling it beginning to destablise.

_'No no no I have so little time now, just need a few more seconds..'_

A few more keys and there was suddenly a gigantic flash as the teleportation field activated, pulling the crystal with it.

Sighing in relief, Curristan was now sure that the planet was now safe. Immediately he did the same thing to the second crystal, sending it to the same place as the first so they both could be destroyed.

Far out at the edge of the system, the unstable crystal materialised , followed by the second one a few seconds later. Then in a cataclysmic blast, the first crystal finally detonated, vapourising the other and several nearby asteroids. The shockwave thankfully came nowhere near Kiratia, dissipating harmlessly.

Back on Kiratia, Curristan decided now that it was time for him to leave. He wasn't one for accolades or pats on the back. Immediately pulling out his sonic screwdriver he overloaded the main console, causing a huge shower of sparks. Then turning away, he began to walk back to the TARDIS.

As he walked he realised that his interference had probably prevented the planet's destruction as the project would have meant the crystal eventually doing what it did and ripping the planet apart.

However he had also just set back research on the planet somewhat, but it seemed better that way than the planet not being there at all.

Reaching the TARDIS he took one final look at the scenery around him before he entered it. The familiar atmosphere of the console room was comforting. He had definitely had a stressful day and was glad to be now back somewhere he felt safe.

Inputting a new course he set the TARDIS in motion, before deciding to retire to his room to rest. He definitely deserved it.


End file.
